Friday, August 3, 2012

Eno River

I've been wanting to check out Eno River State Park for a while. The
park offers paddling, hiking, and back country camping and is located
only an hour from Greensboro. When I got out of work a few hours early,
I decided to go check it out

Since this was a solo venture I started In King's Highway Park in Hillsborough, where the water is still enough to paddle upstream. The boat launches in the State Park all require a shuttle car, thus making a solo trip quite difficult.

I parked at the launch on Himmock's Mill Road. I paddled upstream about a mile before the river gets too shallow. The river passes under an old rail bridge and winds through a natural wooded area. About half way down, the water gets much clearer and I could see perch and small bass swimming.

When I got as far as I could paddle I walked up the shore line about 200 yards, where the water got deep again. I returned to the kayak and headed back down stream. About halfway back I was startled by a Beaver defensively smacking its tail on the water. It submersed itself in a deep pool before I could get out the camera.
I made it back to the car around 2:00 and headed to Eno River State Park about half an hour East in Durham. I parked at the park office and hiked down the trail leading behind the building. The Trail came to the river where there were several people swimming and fishing.

Buckquarter Creek Trail follows the river before sharply turning at Buckquarter Creek. At the creek, you can either Continue on the trail on take a 2.6 mile hike on the Holden Mill Loop Trail.

The Holden Mill trail follows the Eno for about a mile then loops around the stone foundation on an old mill. The trail then gains some elevation, then drops back down to Buckquarter trail.

The trail continues up the creek until it comes to another loop option. I took The Ridge Trail which makes a loop with the Shakori Trail. The trail passes an old cabin before crossing a creek and coming to the back
country camp sites. The sites are not as primitive as I expected. They each have their own tent pads and share an outhouse.

The Shakori Trail stays on a ridge line and offers some good views through the trees before connecting with the Ridge Trail and returning to Buckquarter Trail.

Buckquarter then loops back around to the parking area. After a good seven mile hike, I decided against making the 4 mile Fanny's Ford/Cox Mountain loop in favor of Heading back to Greensboro to catch Avant On Air.

I will definitely be returning to the Park to check out the trails in
the Eastern section and hopefully doing some more paddling.